Federation history
From Memory Alpha, the free Star Trek reference.
Federation history has been recorded ever since the organization was founded in 2161.
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[edit] Prehistory
The first seeds of the Federation were brought forth in 2063, when Dr. Zefram Cochrane created Earth's first warp-capable ship, the Phoenix. However, cyborg creatures from the future, the Borg, came back in time to prevent its launch and assimilate Earth. Thanks to the efforts of the USS Enterprise-E, Cochrane was able to make his historic flight, attracting a passing Vulcan ship. This event became known as First Contact. The Vulcans then helped Earth form a United Earth.
For nearly a century, Earth's warp development was slow, due to the caution of Vulcans. By 2151, Earth had launched their first Warp 5 ship, the Enterprise NX-01, commanded by Captain Jonathan Archer. Initially, the events he was going to set in motion were interrupted by the Temporal Cold War, a conflict that spread across history. Once, the Federation was that wasn't made yet, due to a temporal agent pulling Archer from the past. Thanks to his crew and a Suliban's misunderstanding, he returned to his time period. (ENT: "Broken Bow", "Cold Front", "Shockwave")
Another instant that nearly destroyed the Federation before it was made was when a weapon created by the Xindi attacked Earth, killing seven million people. With help from Suliban Cabal's mysterious benefactor and temporal agents, Enterprise departed for the Delphic Expanse. They discover that a race of transdimensional aliens, called Sphere Builders, were defeated by the Federation in the 26th century. They deceived the Xindi into thinking Earth would attack them in the future and that they should pre-emptively attack. With more help from the future, Archer was able to convince a few factions of the Xindi that they meant no harm. However, the weapon meant to destroy Earth was launched. Archer, with the help of Andorians and Xindi, destroyed the weapon, saving Earth. Also, they destroyed the sphere network that made the Expanse, reverting that section of space to normal. (ENT: "The Expanse", "Azati Prime", "Zero Hour")
Yet Enterprise, was not finished with the Cold War. They were brought to an alternate 1945, where a dangerous time travelling factions known as the Na'kuhl had assisted the Nazis in conquering America in exchange for supplies to create a temporal conduit to travel back to the future. This action erased the current timeline. In another timeline, the Na'kuhl made it back to the 29th century, they made numerous alterations to history, creating a Temporal War. Enterprise was able to destroy the conduit before the Na'kuhl made it. As a result, many temporal incursions were erased; the Cold War was coming to an end and history went on uninterrupted.
When Earth embassy on Vulcan was bombed and blamed on the Syrannites, a group of Vulcans who believed their race had lost their interpretation of Surak's teaching. However, Archer learned that was just an elaborate attempt to round up the Syrannites as well as to make a pre-emptive strike at Andoria. Archer and a Syrannite named T'Pau delivered a ancient artefact, the Kir'Shara, to Vulcan High Command. This initiated the Vulcan Reformation, dissolving High Command and allowing Humanity to finally stand on their own. (ENT: "The Forge", "Awakening", "Kir'Shara")
During the Babel Crisis, Archer had made alliances with the Andorians, Tellarites and Vulcans to fight against the threat of the Romulans. (ENT: "Babel One", "United", "The Aenar").
Earth and many other worlds were growing close to founding a Coalition of Planets. Yet this was opposed by a xenophobic, isolationist group, Terra Prime, attempting to destroy the Coalition and convince all races that they could never live together. The Enterprise was able to foil their plan to destroy Starfleet Command. As all the races were about to abandon the idea of the Coalition, Archer was able to make a passionate speech to all members, saying that as explorers, they should explore the galaxy together. (ENT: "Demons", "Terra Prime")
[edit] Founding
The United Federation of Planets was founded in 2161 (TNG: "The Outcast"), in San Francisco on Earth, (ENT: "Zero Hour") shortly after the end of the Earth-Romulan War. The primary founding members of the new alliance were Earth, Vulcan, Andor and Tellar Prime. At the same time, a new defensive and exploratory agency called Starfleet was founded, composed of the militaries of each of the member worlds, but primarily the Earth Starfleet.
- Ronald D. Moore commented that he felt that the Federation Starfleet Charter incorporates military, exploratory, and scientific missions. [1]
[edit] Klingon Hostilities
Although the Federation's intentions were peaceful, its policies of expansion almost inevitably brought it into conflict with other races in the region. In the 23rd century, the most notable conflict was with the Klingon Empire. Although tensions had existed between the Klingons and the Federation since the latter's founding, a full-blown cold war developed in the 2220s. (TOS: "Day of the Dove") Numerous hot spots and skirmishes were fought along the two rival powers' mutual border until 2267, when the Federation-Klingon War broke out. The conflict was ended just four days later by the Treaty of Organia, which was enforced by a race of powerful noncorporeal beings called the Organians. (TOS: "Errand of Mercy")
The final end of hostilities with the Klingons began at the Khitomer Conference of 2293. Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country In the early 24th century, the peace was rocky, and by the 2340s another war seemed to be on the horizon. It was stopped by the couragious sacrifice by the crew of the USS Enterprise-C, who gave their lives in defense of a Klingon outpost under attack by the Romulans at the Battle of Narendra III. (TNG: "Yesterday's Enterprise")
[edit] Renaissance Period
However, starting in the late 2340s, the Federation began to encounter renewed resistance to its expansion. It came into conflict with the Cardassian Union, the Talarians, the Sheliak, the Tholians, and other minor regional powers like the Tzenkethi. However, with the powerful Starfleet at its height of influence, the conflicts were ended by implementing numerous treaties with the affected powers like the Treaty of Armens with the Sheliak or the Federation-Cardassian Treaty of 2370. (TNG: "The Ensigns of Command")
[edit] The Borg Threat
The worst threat to the Federation came, however, when it made First Contact with the Borg in 2365. The Borg were an advanced race of hybrid cybernetic and biological beings who possessed of a level of technology far beyond that of anything known to Federation science. At the Battle of Wolf 359, the Federation's confidence came crashing down when a single Borg cube effortlessly sliced through an armada of 40 starships. Although the Borg invasion was ultimately defeated, the effect on Federation morale was incalculable. (TNG: "The Best of Both Worlds, Part II") After Wolf 359 Starfleet started to focus more effort in defensive technology, which became apparent in new ship classes like the Sovereign-class, Defiant-class and Prometheus-class, which were clearly more combat-focused than the traditional research vessels Starfleet employed. The availability of these new ships ultimately proved to be pivotal in the Dominion War.
Another skirmish with the Borg took place in 2373, when another Borg cube attacked Earth. After Deep Space 5 reported the destruction of the Federation colony on Ivor Prime by the Borg, the first battle took place in the Typhon sector. Since the Federation fleet under the command of Admiral Hayes was not able to stop the Borg, the final battle was fought in Sector 001, in Earth's orbit, where the cube was eventually destroyed. (Star Trek: First Contact)
[edit] The Dominion War
In the early 2370s, the Federation came into contact with the Dominion, via the recently-discovered Bajoran wormhole to the Gamma Quadrant. The Dominion began a massive offensive to bring its brand of "order" into the Alpha Quadrant, and targeted the Federation as one of the powers most likely to resist. The Federation was eventually forced to declare war, facing the greatest crisis in its history. Although the Federation and its allies eventually triumphed in the Dominion War, many of its important member worlds, including Betazed, Coridan, and Benzar, had been temporary occupied before the Dominion's offensive could be turned back and victory achieved. (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine)
[edit] Pathfinder Project
In 2374, the Federation re-established contact with the USS Voyager, an Intrepid-class starship that was sent into the Badlands to pursue the Maquis vessel Val Jean, commanded by Chakotay. Both ships were stranded in the Delta Quadrant by an alien known as the Caretaker. After an engagement with the Kazon and the destruction of the array, both ships' crews became integrated and vowed to somehow get back to the Alpha Quadrant. Thanks to Voyager's EMH, Starfleet began the Pathfinder Project in an effort to bring them home. By 2378, Voyager finally made it back to Earth after destroying the Borg transwarp network. Their journey had made first contacts with multiple species, changing the quadrant for centuries.
[edit] Reman-Attempted Overthrow
A year after Voyager's return home, there was an apparent Reman uprising in the Romulan Star Empire. The new Praetor, Shinzon, was making an appeal for peace with the Federation, so Starfleet sent their flagship, the Enterprise-E. Yet all this was a trap, as Shinzon was planning the downfall of the Federation. He planned to eradicate all life on Earth using a thalaron radiation weapon, which would install the Romulan Empire as the major power in the Alpha and Beta Quadrants. With the help of a few disillusioned Romulan ships, the Enterprise thwarted Shinzon's plans.
[edit] The Future
As of 2379, another era of peace and prosperity appears to be dawning for the Federation. With the beginnings of détente with its traditional enemy, the Romulan Star Empire, (Star Trek Nemesis) relations with the Klingons at an all-time high and the successful conclusion of the Dominion War, the Federation has the opportunity to resume its place as the most powerful organization of the known galaxy.
By the 26th century, races such as the Klingons, Ithenites, and Xindi had joined the Federation. In the 2550s, the Federation proved instrumental in halting the Sphere Builder invasion of the Milky Way Galaxy, an action which caused the Sphere Builders to try to stop the Federation from ever being formed. (ENT: "Azati Prime")
- However, since Enterprise was successful in destroying the sphere network, it is possible that the events of the 2550s involving the Sphere Builders never occurred.
The Federation soon reached the level of time travel, enabling them to categorize history. They also formed Temporal Integrity Commission to prevent any temporal incursions from occurring or the timeline from collapsing.
[edit] Background
It has been generally accepted in fandom that the day which the Federation was founded in 2161 was May 8th. However, there is no evidence from any episodes or films to support this. It should be noted, however, that May 8th is the same day that Paramount Pictures was founded back in 1914.
Some fans have taken the charter signing ceremony seen in "These Are The Voyages..." to be the signing of the Coalition of Planets' charter or the character for some other alliance other than the UFP Charter; this is based upon Troi's line wherein she remarks that one wishes to tell the holographic participants that "this alliance will give birth to the Federation." While that is a legitimate interpretation, it is not necessarily canonical, as the line itself is ambiguous and could easily refer to the present state of the Federation as its own nation rather than an alliance. Further, the exact same scene was observed in "Zero Hour," wherein it was explicitly identified as the signing of the Federation Charter.
It remains unclear whether the Human colony in the Alpha Centauri system was also among the founding members. An obscure reference from Captain Picard's photo album from Star Trek Generations suggests so, however it was not seen clearly on-screen and other things shown in that album appear apocryphal (like Picard's award from Starfleet for the Battle of Maxia – a term which was unknown to Picard prior to TNG: "The Battle"). Captain Picard's scrapbook also lists 11 October 2161 as the day the Federation was founded.
